Genomic and Fitness Consequences of Genetic Rescue in Wild Populations

Fitzpatrick, Sarah W.; Bradburd, Gideon S.; Kremer, Colin T.; Salerno, Patricia E.; Angeloni, Lisa M.; Funk, W. Chris

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.062

Cited by 107 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Our results also demonstrate that repeated genetic rescue from large or moderate-sized source populations can result in persistent beneficial effects ( Figure S14), highlighting the efficacy of this strategy for populations that are destined to remain small and isolated. One inevitable consequence of this or any other genetic rescue strategy, however, is a loss of native ancestry (Johnson et al 2010;Adams et al 2011;Harris et al 2019), which can potentially swamp out locally adapted alleles (though see Fitzpatrick et al 2020). Although we do not track levels of admixture in our simulations, it is probable that the post-rescue populations are composed of highly admixed individuals (Harris et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strongly deleterious mutations are a primary determinant of extinction risk due to inbreeding depression

Kyriazis¹,

Wayne²,

Lohmueller³

2019

Preprint

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10Human-driven habitat fragmentation and loss has led to a proliferation of small and isolated 11 plant and animal populations that may be threatened with extinction by genetic factors. The 12 prevailing approach for managing these populations is to maintain high genetic diversity, which 13 is often equated with fitness. Increasingly, this is being done using genetic rescue, where 14 individuals from populations with high genetic diversity are translocated to small populations 15 with high levels of inbreeding. However, the potentially negative consequences of this 16 approach have recently been highlighted by the demise of the gray wolf population on Isle 17Royale, which only briefly recovered after genetic rescue by a migrant from the large mainland 18 wolf population and then declined to the brink of extinction. Here, we use ecologically-19 motivated population genetic simulations to show that extinction risk in small populations is 20 often increased by maximizing genetic diversity but is consistently decreased by minimizing 21 deleterious variation. Surprisingly, we find that small populations that are founded or rescued 22

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strongly deleterious mutations are a primary determinant of extinction risk due to inbreeding depression

Kyriazis¹,

Wayne²,

Lohmueller³

2019

Preprint

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“…However, moving locally adapted populations may result in outbreeding depression and maladaptation, negatively impacting populations (Weeks et al, 2011), although some genetic rescue interventions have resulted in increases in populations, and alleles associated with local adaptation were not lost following gene flow (Fitzpatrick et al, 2020).…”

Section: Conservation Interventions To Mitigate Climate-driven Genementioning

confidence: 99%

Past, current, and potential future distributions of unique genetic diversity in a cold‐adapted mountain butterfly

Minter

Dasmahapatra

Thomas

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Aim Climatic changes throughout the Pleistocene have strongly modified species distributions. We examine how these range shifts have affected the genetic diversity of a montane butterfly species and whether the genetic diversity in the extant populations is threatened by future climate change. Location Europe. Taxon Erebia epiphron Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae. Methods We analyzed mtDNA to map current genetic diversity and differentiation of E. epiphron across Europe to identify population refugia and postglacial range shifts. We used species distribution modeling (SDM) to hindcast distributions over the last 21,000 years to identify source locations of extant populations and to project distributions into the future (2070) to predict potential losses in genetic diversity. Results We found substantial genetic diversity unique to specific regions within Europe (total number of haplotypes = 31, number of unique haplotypes = 27, H d = 0.9). Genetic data and SDM hindcasting suggest long‐term separation and survival of discrete populations. Particularly, high rates of unique diversity in postglacially colonized sites in England ( H d = 0.64) suggest this population was colonized from a now extinct cryptic refugium. Under future climate change, SDMs predict loss of climate suitability for E. epiphron , particularly at lower elevations (<1,000 meters above sea level) equating to 1 to 12 unique haplotypes being at risk under climate scenarios projecting 1°C and 2–3°C increases respectfully in global temperature by 2070. Main conclusions Our results suggest that historical range expansion and retraction processes by a cold‐adapted mountain species caused diversification between populations, resulting in unique genetic diversity which may be at risk if distributions of cold‐adapted species shrink in future. Assisted colonizations of individuals from at‐risk populations into climatically suitable unoccupied habitat might help conserve unique genetic diversity, and translocations into remaining populations might increase their genetic diversity and hence their ability to adapt to future climate change.

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“…Translocation of individuals to restore genetic diversity (genetic rescue) is increasingly used to manage vulnerable populations (Whiteley et al 2015), but it can swamp local adaptations and lead to outbreeding depression (Frankham et al 2011). Thus, genetic management is context dependent and needs evaluation across multiple generations (Fitzpatrick et al 2020). Genomic studies can help evaluate the extent to which populations are locally adapted to assess the costs and benefits of translocations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%